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Barack Hussein
ObamaObama II (/bəˈrɑːk huːˈseɪn
oʊˈbɑːmə/ ( listen);[1] born August 4, 1961) is an
American politician who served as the 44th President of the United
States from 2009 to 2017. The first
African AmericanAfrican American to assume the
presidency, he was previously the junior United States Senator from
IllinoisIllinois from 2005 to 2008. Before that, he served in the Illinois
State Senate from 1997 until 2004.
ObamaObama was born in 1961 in Honolulu, Hawaii, two years after the
territory was admitted to the Union as the 50th state. Raised largely
in Hawaii,
ObamaObama also spent one year of his childhood in Washington
State and four years in Indonesia. After graduating from Columbia
University in
New York CityNew York City in 1983, he worked as a community
organizer in Chicago. In 1988
ObamaObama enrolled in Harvard Law School,
where he was the first black president of the Harvard Law Review.
After graduation, he became a civil rights attorney and professor and
taught constitutional law at the University of
ChicagoChicago Law School from
1992 to 2004.
ObamaObama represented the 13th District for three terms in
the
IllinoisIllinois Senate from 1997 to 2004, when he ran for the U.S.
Senate.
ObamaObama received national attention in 2004 with his unexpected
March primary win, his well-received July Democratic National
Convention keynote address, and his landslide November election to the
Senate. In 2008,
ObamaObama was nominated for president a year after his
campaign began and after a close primary campaign against Hillary
Clinton. He was elected over Republican
John McCainJohn McCain and was
inaugurated on January 20, 2009. Nine months later,
ObamaObama was named
the 2009
Nobel Peace PrizeNobel Peace Prize laureate, accepting the award with the
caveat that he felt there were others "far more deserving of this
honor than I."
During his first two years in office,
ObamaObama signed many landmark bills
into law. The main reforms were the Patient Protection and Affordable
Care Act (often referred to as "Obamacare", shortened as the
"Affordable Care Act"), the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and
Consumer Protection Act, and the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of
2010. The
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and Tax
Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act
of 2010 served as economic stimulus amidst the Great Recession. After
a lengthy debate over the national debt limit,
ObamaObama signed the Budget
Control and the American Taxpayer Relief Acts. In foreign policy,
ObamaObama increased U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan, reduced nuclear
weapons with the United States–Russia
New STARTNew START treaty, and ended
military involvement in the
IraqIraq War. He ordered military involvement
in
LibyaLibya in opposition to Muammar Gaddafi; Gaddafi was killed by
NATO-assisted forces, and he also ordered the military operation that
resulted in the death of Osama bin Laden.
After winning re-election by defeating Republican opponent Mitt
Romney,
ObamaObama was sworn in for a second term in 2013. During his
second term,
ObamaObama promoted inclusiveness for
LGBTLGBT Americans. His
administration filed briefs that urged the Supreme Court to strike
down same-sex marriage bans as unconstitutional (United States v.
Windsor and Obergefell v. Hodges).
ObamaObama advocated for gun control in
response to the Sandy Hook
Elementary SchoolElementary School shooting, and issued
wide-ranging executive actions concerning climate change and
immigration. In foreign policy,
ObamaObama ordered military intervention in
IraqIraq in response to gains made by
ISILISIL after the 2011 withdrawal from
Iraq, continued the process of ending U.S. combat operations in
Afghanistan, promoted discussions that led to the 2015 Paris Agreement
on global climate change, initiated sanctions against Russia following
the invasion in Ukraine and again after Russian interference in the
20162016 United States elections, brokered a nuclear deal with Iran, and
normalized U.S. relations with Cuba.
ObamaObama left office in January 2017
with a 60% approval rating and currently resides in Washington, D.C.
Since leaving office, Obama’s presidency has been ranked
consistently favorable by historians and the American general
public.[2][3]

Early life and career
Main article: Early life and career of Barack Obama
ObamaObama was born on August 4, 1961,[4] at Kapiolani Medical Center for
Women and Children in Honolulu, Hawaii.[5][6][7] He is the only
President who was born in Hawaii[8] and the only President who was
born outside of the contiguous 48 states.[9] He was born to a white
mother and a black father. His mother,
Ann DunhamAnn Dunham (1942–1995), was
born in Wichita, Kansas; she was mostly of English descent,[10] with
some German, Irish, Scottish, Swiss, and Welsh ancestry.[11] His
father,
Barack Obama Sr.Barack Obama Sr. (1936–1982), was a married Luo Kenyan man
from Nyang'oma Kogelo. Obama's parents met in 1960 in a Russian
language class at the University of
HawaiiHawaii at Manoa, where his father
was a foreign student on scholarship.[12][13] The couple married in
Wailuku,
HawaiiHawaii on February 2, 1961, six months before
ObamaObama was
born.[14][15]
In late August 1961 (only a few weeks after he was born), Barack and
his mother moved to the
University of WashingtonUniversity of Washington in Seattle, where
they lived for a year. During that time, the elder
ObamaObama completed his
undergraduate degree in economics in Hawaii, graduating in June 1962.
He then left to attend graduate school on a scholarship at Harvard
University, where he earned an M.A. in economics. Obama's parents
divorced in March 1964.[16]
ObamaObama Sr. returned to Kenya in 1964, where
he married for a third time. He visited his son in
HawaiiHawaii only once,
at Christmas time in 1971,[17] before he was killed in an automobile
accident in 1982, when
ObamaObama was 21 years old.[18] Recalling his early
childhood,
ObamaObama said, "That my father looked nothing like the people
around me – that he was black as pitch, my mother white as milk –
barely registered in my mind."[13] He described his struggles as a
young adult to reconcile social perceptions of his multiracial
heritage.[19]
In 1963, Dunham met
Lolo SoetoroLolo Soetoro at the University of Hawaii; he was
an Indonesian
East–West CenterEast–West Center graduate student in geography. The
couple married on
MolokaiMolokai on March 15, 1965.[20] After two one-year
extensions of his J-1 visa, Lolo returned to
IndonesiaIndonesia in 1966. His
wife and stepson followed sixteen months later in 1967. The family
initially lived in a
MentengMenteng Dalam neighborhood in the Tebet
subdistrict of south Jakarta. From 1970, they lived in a wealthier
neighborhood in the
MentengMenteng subdistrict of central Jakarta.[21]
Education
From age six to ten,
ObamaObama attended local Indonesian-language schools:
Sekolah Dasar Katolik Santo Fransiskus Asisi (St. Francis of Assisi
CatholicCatholic Elementary School) for two years and Sekolah Dasar Negeri
MentengMenteng 01 (State
Elementary SchoolElementary SchoolMentengMenteng 01/Besuki Public School)
for one and a half years, supplemented by English-language Calvert
School homeschooling by his mother.[22][23] As a result of those four
years in Jakarta, he was able to speak Indonesian fluently as a
child.[24][25][26] During his time in Indonesia, Obama's step-father
taught him to be resilient and gave him "a pretty hardheaded
assessment of how the world works".[27]
In 1971,
ObamaObama returned to
HonoluluHonolulu to live with his maternal
grandparents, Madelyn and Stanley Dunham. He attended Punahou
School— a private college preparatory school— with the aid of a
scholarship from fifth grade until he graduated from high school in
1979.[28] In his youth,
ObamaObama went by the nickname "Barry".[29] Obama
lived with his mother and half-sister, Maya Soetoro, in
HawaiiHawaii for
three years from 1972 to 1975 while his mother was a graduate student
in anthropology at the University of Hawaii.[30]
ObamaObama chose to stay
in
HawaiiHawaii with his grandparents for high school at Punahou when his
mother and half-sister returned to
IndonesiaIndonesia in 1975 so his mother
could begin anthropology field work.[31] His mother spent most of the
next two decades in Indonesia, divorcing Lolo in 1980 and earning a
PhD degree in 1992, before dying in 1995 in
HawaiiHawaii following
unsuccessful treatment for ovarian and uterine cancer.[32]
ObamaObama later reflected on his years in
HonoluluHonolulu and wrote: "The
opportunity that
HawaiiHawaii offered – to experience a variety of
cultures in a climate of mutual respect – became an integral part of
my world view, and a basis for the values that I hold most dear."[33]
ObamaObama has also written and talked about using alcohol, marijuana, and
cocaine during his teenage years to "push questions of who I was out
of my mind".[34]
ObamaObama was also a member of the "choom gang", a
self-named group of friends that spent time together and occasionally
smoked marijuana.[35][36]
After graduating from high school in 1979,
ObamaObama moved to Los Angeles
to attend Occidental College. In February 1981,
ObamaObama made his first
public speech, calling for Occidental to participate in the
disinvestment from South Africa in response to that nation's policy of
apartheid.[37] In mid-1981,
ObamaObama traveled to
IndonesiaIndonesia to visit his
mother and half-sister Maya, and visited the families of college
friends in
PakistanPakistan and India for three weeks.[37] Later in 1981, he
transferred as a junior to
Columbia UniversityColumbia University in New York City, where
he majored in political science with a specialty in international
relations[38] and in English literature[39] and lived off-campus on
West 109th Street.[40] He graduated with a BA degree in 1983 and
worked for about a year at the Business International Corporation,
where he was a financial researcher and writer,[41][42] then as a
project coordinator for the
New York Public Interest Research Group on
the
City College of New YorkCity College of New York campus for three months in
1985.[43][44][45]
Family and personal life
Main article: Family of Barack Obama

In a 2006 interview,
ObamaObama highlighted the diversity of his extended
family: "It's like a little mini-United Nations", he said. "I've got
relatives who look like Bernie Mac, and I've got relatives who look
like Margaret Thatcher."[46]
ObamaObama has a half-sister with whom he was
raised (Maya Soetoro-Ng, the daughter of his mother and her Indonesian
second husband) and seven half-siblings from his Kenyan father's
family—six of them living.[47] Obama's mother was survived by her
Kansas-born mother, Madelyn Dunham,[48] until her death on November 2,
2008,[49] two days before his election to the Presidency.
ObamaObama also
has roots in Ireland; he met with his Irish cousins in
MoneygallMoneygall in
May 2011.[50] In Dreams from My Father,
ObamaObama ties his mother's family
history to possible Native American ancestors and distant relatives of
Jefferson Davis,
President of the Confederate States of AmericaPresident of the Confederate States of America during
the American Civil War.[51]

ObamaObama is a supporter of the
ChicagoChicago White Sox, and he threw out the
first pitch at the 2005 ALCS when he was still a senator.[52] In 2009,
he threw out the ceremonial first pitch at the All-Star Game while
wearing a White Sox jacket.[53] He is also primarily a
ChicagoChicago Bears
football fan in the NFL, but in his childhood and adolescence was a
fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers, and rooted for them ahead of their
victory in
Super Bowl XLIIISuper Bowl XLIII 12 days after he took office as
President.[54] In 2011,
ObamaObama invited the 1985
ChicagoChicago Bears to the
White House; the team had not visited the
White HouseWhite House after their
Super Bowl win in 1986 due to the Space Shuttle Challenger
disaster.[55] He plays basketball, a sport he participated in as a
member of his high school's varsity team,[56] and he is
left-handed.[57]

ObamaObama lived with anthropologist
Sheila Miyoshi JagerSheila Miyoshi Jager while he was a
community organizer in
ChicagoChicago in the 1980s.[58] He proposed to her
twice, but both Jager and her parents turned him down.[58][59] The
relationship was only made public in May 2017, several months after
Obama's two-term presidency had ended.[59]
In June 1989,
ObamaObama met
Michelle RobinsonMichelle Robinson when he was employed as a
summer associate at the
ChicagoChicago law firm of Sidley Austin.[60]
Robinson was assigned for three months as Obama's adviser at the firm,
and she joined him at several group social functions but declined his
initial requests to date.[61] They began dating later that summer,
became engaged in 1991, and were married on October 3, 1992.[62] The
couple's first daughter, Malia Ann, was born in 1998,[63] followed by
a second daughter, Natasha ("Sasha"), in 2001.[64] The
ObamaObama daughters
attended the University of
ChicagoChicago Laboratory Schools. When they moved
to Washington, D.C., in January 2009, the girls started at the Sidwell
Friends School.[65] The Obamas have two Portuguese Water Dogs; the
first, a male named Bo, was a gift from Senator Ted Kennedy.[66] In
2013, Bo was joined by Sunny, a female.[67]

ObamaObama and his wife Michelle at the Civil Rights Summit at the LBJ
Presidential Library, 2014

In 2005, the family applied the proceeds of a book deal and moved from
a Hyde Park,
ChicagoChicago condominium to a $1.6 million house in
neighboring Kenwood, Chicago.[68] The purchase of an adjacent
lot—and sale of part of it to
ObamaObama by the wife of developer,
campaign donor and friend Tony Rezko—attracted media attention
because of Rezko's subsequent indictment and conviction on political
corruption charges that were unrelated to Obama.[69]
In December 2007, Money Magazine estimated Obama's net worth at
$1.3 million.[70] Their 2009 tax return showed a household income
of $5.5 million—up from about $4.2 million in 2007 and
$1.6 million in 2005—mostly from sales of his books.[71][72] On
his 2010 income of $1.7 million, he gave 14% to non-profit
organizations, including $131,000 to Fisher House Foundation, a
charity assisting wounded veterans' families, allowing them to reside
near where the veteran is receiving medical treatments.[73][74] Per
his 2012 financial disclosure,
ObamaObama may be worth as much as
$10 million.[75]
In early 2010, Michelle spoke about her husband's smoking habit and
said that Barack had quit smoking.[76][77]
On his 55th birthday, August 4, 2016,
ObamaObama penned an essay in
Glamour, in which he described how his daughters and the presidency
have made him a feminist.[78][79][80]
Religious views
ObamaObama is a
ProtestantProtestant Christian whose religious views developed in his
adult life.[81] He wrote in
The Audacity of HopeThe Audacity of Hope that he "was not
raised in a religious household". He described his mother, raised by
non-religious parents, as being detached from religion, yet "in many
ways the most spiritually awakened person that I have ever known." He
described his father as a "confirmed atheist" by the time his parents
met, and his stepfather as "a man who saw religion as not particularly
useful."
ObamaObama explained how, through working with black churches as a
community organizer while in his twenties, he came to understand "the
power of the African-American religious tradition to spur social
change."[82]

In January 2008,
ObamaObama told Christianity Today: "I am a Christian, and
I am a devout Christian. I believe in the redemptive death and
resurrection of Jesus Christ. I believe that faith gives me a path to
be cleansed of sin and have eternal life."[83] On September 27, 2010,
ObamaObama released a statement commenting on his religious views saying,
"I'm a Christian by choice. My family didn't – frankly, they weren't
folks who went to church every week. And my mother was one of the most
spiritual people I knew, but she didn't raise me in the church. So I
came to my Christian faith later in life, and it was because the
precepts of Jesus Christ spoke to me in terms of the kind of life that
I would want to lead – being my brothers' and sisters' keeper,
treating others as they would treat me."[84][85]
ObamaObama met
Trinity United Church of Christ pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright
in October 1987 and became a member of Trinity in 1992.[86] During
Obama's first presidential campaign in May 2008, he resigned from
Trinity after some of Wright's statements were criticized.[87] Since
moving to Washington, D.C., in 2009, the
ObamaObama family has attended
several
ProtestantProtestant churches, including Shiloh Baptist Church and St.
John's Episcopal Church, as well as Evergreen Chapel at Camp David,
but the members of the family do not attend church on a regular
basis.[88][89][90]
Law career
Community organizerCommunity organizer and Harvard Law School
Two years after graduating from Columbia,
ObamaObama was back in Chicago
when he was hired as director of the Developing Communities Project, a
church-based community organization originally comprising eight
CatholicCatholic parishes in Roseland, West Pullman, and Riverdale on
Chicago's South Side. He worked there as a community organizer from
June 1985 to May 1988.[44][91] He helped set up a job training
program, a college preparatory tutoring program, and a tenants' rights
organization in Altgeld Gardens.[92]
ObamaObama also worked as a consultant
and instructor for the Gamaliel Foundation, a community organizing
institute.[93] In mid-1988, he traveled for the first time in Europe
for three weeks and then for five weeks in Kenya, where he met many of
his paternal relatives for the first time.[94][95]

ObamaObama entered
Harvard Law SchoolHarvard Law School in the fall of 1988, living in nearby
Somerville, Massachusetts.[97] He was selected as an editor of the
Harvard Law ReviewHarvard Law Review at the end of his first year,[98] president of the
journal in his second year,[92][99] and research assistant to the
constitutional scholar
Laurence Tribe while at Harvard for two
years.[100] During his summers, he returned to Chicago, where he
worked as an associate at the law firms of
Sidley AustinSidley Austin in 1989 and
Hopkins & Sutter in 1990.[101] After graduating with a JD degree
magna cum laude[102] from Harvard in 1991, he returned to Chicago.[98]
Obama's election as the first black president of the Harvard Law
Review gained national media attention[92][99] and led to a publishing
contract and advance for a book about race relations,[103] which
evolved into a personal memoir. The manuscript was published in
mid-1995 as Dreams from My Father.[103]
ChicagoChicago Law School and civil rights attorney
In 1991,
ObamaObama accepted a two-year position as Visiting Law and
Government Fellow at the University of
ChicagoChicago Law School to work on
his first book.[103][104] He then taught constitutional law at the
University of
ChicagoChicago Law School for twelve years, first as a Lecturer
from 1992 to 1996, and then as a Senior Lecturer from 1996 to
2004.[105]
From April to October 1992,
ObamaObama directed Illinois's Project Vote, a
voter registration campaign with ten staffers and seven hundred
volunteer registrars; it achieved its goal of registering 150,000 of
400,000 unregistered African Americans in the state, leading Crain's
ChicagoChicago Business to name
ObamaObama to its 1993 list of "40 under Forty"
powers to be.[106]
He joined Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Galland, a 13-attorney law firm
specializing in civil rights litigation and neighborhood economic
development, where he was an associate for three years from 1993 to
1996, then of counsel from 1996 to 2004. In 1994, he was listed as one
of the lawyers in Buycks-Roberson v. Citibank Fed. Sav. Bank, 94 C
4094 (N.D. Ill.).[107] This class action lawsuit was filed in 1994
with Selma Buycks-Roberson as lead plaintiff and alleged that Citibank
Federal Savings Bank had engaged in practices forbidden under the
Equal Credit Opportunity Act and the Fair Housing Act.[108] The case
was settled out of court.[109] Final Judgment was issued on May 13,
1998, with Citibank Federal Savings Bank agreeing to pay attorney
fees.[110] His law license became inactive in 2007.[111][112]
From 1994 to 2002,
ObamaObama served on the boards of directors of the
Woods Fund of Chicago—which in 1985 had been the first foundation to
fund the Developing Communities Project—and of the Joyce
Foundation.[44] He served on the board of directors of the Chicago
Annenberg Challenge from 1995 to 2002, as founding president and
chairman of the board of directors from 1995 to 1999.[44]
Legislative career
IllinoisIllinois State Senator (1997–2004)
Main article:
IllinoisIllinois Senate career of Barack Obama

ObamaObama was elected to the
IllinoisIllinois Senate in 1996, succeeding
Democratic State Senator Alice Palmer from Illinois's 13th District,
which, at that time, spanned
ChicagoChicago South Side neighborhoods from
Hyde Park–Kenwood south to South Shore and west to Chicago
Lawn.[113] Once elected,
ObamaObama gained bipartisan support for
legislation that reformed ethics and health care laws.[114] He
sponsored a law that increased tax credits for low-income workers,
negotiated welfare reform, and promoted increased subsidies for
childcare.[115] In 2001, as co-chairman of the bipartisan Joint
Committee on Administrative Rules,
ObamaObama supported Republican Governor
Ryan's payday loan regulations and predatory mortgage lending
regulations aimed at averting home foreclosures.[116]
He was reelected to the
IllinoisIllinois Senate in 1998, defeating Republican
Yesse Yehudah in the general election, and was re-elected again in
2002.[117] In 2000, he lost a Democratic primary race for Illinois's
1st congressional district in the United States House of
Representatives to four-term incumbent
Bobby RushBobby Rush by a margin of two
to one.[118]
In January 2003,
ObamaObama became chairman of the
IllinoisIllinois Senate's Health
and Human Services Committee when Democrats, after a decade in the
minority, regained a majority.[119] He sponsored and led unanimous,
bipartisan passage of legislation to monitor racial profiling by
requiring police to record the race of drivers they detained, and
legislation making
IllinoisIllinois the first state to mandate videotaping of
homicide interrogations.[115][120] During his 2004 general election
campaign for the U.S. Senate, police representatives credited Obama
for his active engagement with police organizations in enacting death
penalty reforms.[121]
ObamaObama resigned from the
IllinoisIllinois Senate in
November 2004 following his election to the U.S. Senate.[122]
2004 U.S. Senate campaign
Main article:
United States SenateUnited States Senate election in Illinois, 2004

County results of the 2004 U.S. Senate race in Illinois.
ObamaObama won the
counties in blue.

In May 2002,
ObamaObama commissioned a poll to assess his prospects in a
2004 U.S. Senate race. He created a campaign committee, began raising
funds, and lined up political media consultant
David AxelrodDavid Axelrod by August
2002.
ObamaObama formally announced his candidacy in January 2003.[123]
ObamaObama was an early opponent of the
George W. BushGeorge W. Bush administration's
2003 invasion of Iraq.[124] On October 2, 2002, the day President Bush
and Congress agreed on the joint resolution authorizing the Iraq
War,[125]
ObamaObama addressed the first high-profile
ChicagoChicago anti-
IraqIraq War
rally,[126] and spoke out against the war.[127] He addressed another
anti-war rally in March 2003 and told the crowd that "it's not too
late" to stop the war.[128]
Decisions by Republican incumbent Peter Fitzgerald and his Democratic
predecessor
Carol Moseley BraunCarol Moseley Braun to not participate in the election
resulted in wide-open Democratic and Republican primary contests
involving fifteen candidates.[129] In the March 2004 primary election,
ObamaObama won in an unexpected landslide—which overnight made him a
rising star within the national Democratic Party, started speculation
about a presidential future, and led to the reissue of his memoir,
Dreams from My Father.[130] In July 2004,
ObamaObama delivered the keynote
address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention,[131] seen by
9.1 million viewers. His speech was well received and elevated
his status within the Democratic Party.[132]
Obama's expected opponent in the general election, Republican primary
winner Jack Ryan, withdrew from the race in June 2004.[133] Six weeks
later,
Alan KeyesAlan Keyes accepted the Republican nomination to replace
Ryan.[134] In the November 2004 general election,
ObamaObama won with 70%
of the vote.[135]
U.S. Senator from
IllinoisIllinois (2005–08)
Main article:
United States SenateUnited States Senate career of Barack Obama

The official portrait of
ObamaObama as a member of the United States Senate

ObamaObama was sworn in as a senator on January 3, 2005,[136] becoming the
only Senate member of the Congressional Black Caucus.[137] CQ Weekly
characterized him as a "loyal Democrat" based on analysis of all
Senate votes from 2005 to 2007.
ObamaObama announced on November 13, 2008,
that he would resign his Senate seat on November 16, 2008, before the
start of the lame-duck session, to focus on his transition period for
the presidency.[138]
Legislation
See also: List of bills sponsored by
Barack ObamaBarack Obama in the United States
Senate
ObamaObama cosponsored the Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act.[139]
He introduced two initiatives that bore his name: Lugar–Obama, which
expanded the
Nunn–Lugar Cooperative Threat ReductionNunn–Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction concept to
conventional weapons;[140] and the Federal Funding Accountability and
Transparency Act of 2006, which authorized the establishment of
USAspending.gov, a web search engine on federal spending.[141] On June
3, 2008, Senator Obama—along with Senators Tom Carper, Tom Coburn,
and John McCain—introduced follow-up legislation: Strengthening
Transparency and Accountability in Federal Spending Act of 2008.[142]
ObamaObama sponsored legislation that would have required nuclear plant
owners to notify state and local authorities of radioactive leaks, but
the bill failed to pass in the full Senate after being heavily
modified in committee.[143] Regarding tort reform,
ObamaObama voted for the
Class Action Fairness Act of 2005Class Action Fairness Act of 2005 and the FISA Amendments Act of 2008,
which grants immunity from civil liability to telecommunications
companies complicit with NSA warrantless wiretapping operations.[144]

In December 2006, President Bush signed into law the Democratic
Republic of the Congo Relief, Security, and Democracy Promotion Act,
marking the first federal legislation to be enacted with
ObamaObama as its
primary sponsor.[146] In January 2007,
ObamaObama and Senator Feingold
introduced a corporate jet provision to the Honest Leadership and Open
Government Act, which was signed into law in September 2007.[147]
ObamaObama also introduced two unsuccessful bills: the Deceptive Practices
and Voter Intimidation Prevention Act to criminalize deceptive
practices in federal elections,[148] and the
Iraq WarIraq War De-Escalation
Act of 2007.[149]
Later in 2007,
ObamaObama sponsored an amendment to the Defense
Authorization Act to add safeguards for personality-disorder military
discharges.[150] This amendment passed the full Senate in the spring
of 2008.[151] He sponsored the Iran Sanctions Enabling Act supporting
divestment of state pension funds from Iran's oil and gas industry,
which has not passed committee; and co-sponsored legislation to reduce
risks of nuclear terrorism.[152]
ObamaObama also sponsored a Senate
amendment to the State Children's Health Insurance Program, providing
one year of job protection for family members caring for soldiers with
combat-related injuries.[153]
Committees

ObamaObama held assignments on the Senate Committees for Foreign Relations,
Environment and Public Works and Veterans' Affairs through December
2006.[154] In January 2007, he left the Environment and Public Works
committee and took additional assignments with Health, Education,
Labor and Pensions and Homeland Security and Governmental
Affairs.[155] He also became Chairman of the Senate's subcommittee on
European Affairs.[156] As a member of the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee,
ObamaObama made official trips to Eastern Europe, the Middle
East, Central Asia and Africa. He met with
Mahmoud AbbasMahmoud Abbas before Abbas
became President of the Palestinian National Authority, and gave a
speech at the
University of NairobiUniversity of Nairobi in which he condemned corruption
within the Kenyan government.[157]
Presidential campaigns
2008 presidential campaign
Main articles: United States presidential election, 2008; Barack Obama
presidential primary campaign, 2008; and
Barack ObamaBarack Obama presidential
campaign, 2008

ObamaObama standing on stage with his wife and daughters just before
announcing his presidential candidacy in Springfield, Illinois,
February 10, 2007

On February 10, 2007,
ObamaObama announced his candidacy for President of
the United States in front of the Old State Capitol building in
Springfield, Illinois.[158][159] The choice of the announcement site
was viewed as symbolic because it was also where Abraham Lincoln
delivered his historic "House Divided" speech in 1858.[158][160] Obama
emphasized issues of rapidly ending the
IraqIraq War, increasing energy
independence, and reforming the health care system,[161] in a campaign
that projected themes of hope and change.[162]
Numerous candidates entered the Democratic Party presidential
primaries. The field narrowed to a duel between
ObamaObama and Senator
Hillary ClintonHillary Clinton after early contests, with the race remaining close
throughout the primary process but with
ObamaObama gaining a steady lead in
pledged delegates due to better long-range planning, superior
fundraising, dominant organizing in caucus states, and better
exploitation of delegate allocation rules.[163] On June 7, 2008,
Clinton ended her campaign and endorsed Obama.[164]

On August 23,
ObamaObama announced his selection of
DelawareDelaware Senator Joe
Biden as his vice presidential running mate.[165]
ObamaObama selected Biden
from a field speculated to include former Indiana Governor and Senator
Evan BayhEvan Bayh and Virginia Governor Tim Kaine.[166] At the Democratic
National Convention in Denver, Colorado,
Hillary ClintonHillary Clinton called for
her supporters to endorse Obama, and she and
Bill ClintonBill Clinton gave
convention speeches in his support.[167]
ObamaObama delivered his
acceptance speech, not at the center where the Democratic National
Convention was held, but at
Invesco Field at Mile HighInvesco Field at Mile High to a crowd of
approximately 84,000 people; the speech was viewed by over
38 million people worldwide.[168][169][170]
During both the primary process and the general election, Obama's
campaign set numerous fundraising records, particularly in the
quantity of small donations.[171] On June 19, 2008,
ObamaObama became the
first major-party presidential candidate to turn down public financing
in the general election since the system was created in 1976.[172]

On April 4, 2011,
ObamaObama announced his reelection campaign for 2012 in
a video titled "It Begins with Us" that he posted on his website and
filed election papers with the Federal Election
Commission.[178][179][180] As the incumbent president he ran virtually
unopposed in the Democratic Party presidential primaries,[181] and on
April 3, 2012,
ObamaObama had secured the 2778 convention delegates needed
to win the Democratic nomination.[182]

2012 electoral vote results

At the
Democratic National ConventionDemocratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina,
ObamaObama and
Joe BidenJoe Biden were formally nominated by former President Bill
Clinton as the Democratic Party candidates for president and vice
president in the general election. Their main opponents were
Republicans Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, and
Representative
Paul RyanPaul Ryan of Wisconsin.[183]
On November 6, 2012,
ObamaObama won 332 electoral votes, exceeding the 270
required for him to be reelected as president.[184][185][186] With
51.1% of the popular vote,[187]
ObamaObama became the first Democratic
president since
Franklin D. RooseveltFranklin D. Roosevelt to win the majority of the
popular vote twice.[188][189] President
ObamaObama addressed supporters and
volunteers at Chicago's
McCormick PlaceMcCormick Place after his reelection and said:
"Tonight you voted for action, not politics as usual. You elected us
to focus on your jobs, not ours. And in the coming weeks and months, I
am looking forward to reaching out and working with leaders of both
parties."[190][191]
Presidency (2009–2017)
Main article: Presidency of Barack Obama
For a chronological guide to this subject, see Timeline of the
Presidency of Barack Obama.
See also:
Confirmations of Barack Obama's CabinetConfirmations of Barack Obama's Cabinet and List of
international presidential trips made by Barack Obama
First 100 days
Main article: First 100 days of Barack Obama's presidency

Barack ObamaBarack Obama takes the oath of office administered by Chief Justice
John G. Roberts Jr. at the Capitol, January 20, 2009

The inauguration of
Barack ObamaBarack Obama as the 44th President took place on
January 20, 2009. In his first few days in office,
ObamaObama issued
executive orders and presidential memoranda directing the U.S.
military to develop plans to withdraw troops from Iraq.[192] He
ordered the closing of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp,[193] but
Congress prevented the closure by refusing to appropriate the required
funds[194][195][196] and preventing moving any Guantanamo detainee
into the U.S. or to other countries.[197]
ObamaObama reduced the secrecy
given to presidential records.[198] He also revoked President George
W. Bush's restoration of President Ronald Reagan's Mexico City Policy
prohibiting federal aid to international family planning organizations
that perform or provide counseling about abortion.[199]
Domestic policy
See also: Social policy of the
Barack ObamaBarack Obama administration
The first bill signed into law by
ObamaObama was the Lilly Ledbetter Fair
Pay Act of 2009, relaxing the statute of limitations for equal-pay
lawsuits.[200] Five days later, he signed the reauthorization of the
State Children's Health Insurance ProgramState Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) to cover an
additional 4 million uninsured children.[201] In March 2009,
ObamaObama reversed a Bush-era policy that had limited funding of embryonic
stem cell research and pledged to develop "strict guidelines" on the
research.[202]

ObamaObama appointed two women to serve on the Supreme Court in the first
two years of his Presidency. He nominated
Sonia SotomayorSonia Sotomayor on May 26,
2009 to replace retiring Associate Justice David Souter; she was
confirmed on August 6, 2009,[203] becoming the first Supreme Court
Justice of
HispanicHispanic descent.[204]
ObamaObama nominated
Elena KaganElena Kagan on May
10, 2010 to replace retiring Associate Justice John Paul Stevens. She
was confirmed on August 5, 2010, bringing the number of women sitting
simultaneously on the Court to three justices for the first time in
American history.[205]
On March 30, 2010,
ObamaObama signed the Health Care and Education
Reconciliation Act, a reconciliation bill that ended the process of
the federal government giving subsidies to private banks to give out
federally insured loans, increased the
Pell Grant scholarship award,
and made changes to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care
Act.[206][207]

ObamaObama meets with the Cabinet of the United States, November 23, 2009

In a major space policy speech in April 2010,
ObamaObama announced a
planned change in direction at NASA, the U.S. space agency. He ended
plans for a return of human spaceflight to the moon and development of
the
Ares IAres I rocket,
Ares VAres V rocket and Constellation program, in favor
of funding Earth science projects, a new rocket type, and research and
development for an eventual manned mission to Mars, and ongoing
missions to the International Space Station.[208]
President Obama's
2011 State of the Union Address2011 State of the Union Address focused on themes of
education and innovation, stressing the importance of innovation
economics to make the United States more competitive globally. He
spoke of a five-year freeze in domestic spending, eliminating tax
breaks for oil companies and reversing tax cuts for the wealthiest
Americans, banning congressional earmarks, and reducing healthcare
costs. He promised that the United States would have one million
electric vehicles on the road by 2015 and would be 80% reliant on
"clean" electricity.[209][210]
LGBTLGBT rights
On October 8, 2009,
ObamaObama signed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd
Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, a measure that expanded the 1969
United States federal hate-crime law to include crimes motivated by a
victim's actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender
identity, or disability.[211]
On October 30, 2009,
ObamaObama lifted the ban on travel to the United
States by those infected with HIV, which was celebrated by Immigration
Equality.[212]
On December 22, 2010,
ObamaObama signed the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal
Act of 2010, which fulfilled a key promise made in the 2008
presidential campaign[213][214] to end the Don't ask, don't tell
policy of 1993 that had prevented gay and lesbian people from serving
openly in the United States Armed Forces.[215] In 2016, the Pentagon
ended the policy that also barred transgender people from serving
openly in the military.[216]
As a candidate for the
IllinoisIllinois state senate in 1996,
ObamaObama had said
that he favored legalizing same-sex marriage.[217] By the time of his
Senate run in 2004, he said that he supported civil unions and
domestic partnerships for same-sex partners, but he opposed same-sex
marriages for strategic reasons.[218] On May 9, 2012, shortly after
the official launch of his campaign for re-election as president,
ObamaObama said his views had evolved, and he publicly affirmed his
personal support for the legalization of same-sex marriage, becoming
the first sitting U.S. president to do so.[219][220]

The
White HouseWhite House was illuminated in rainbow colors on the evening of
the Supreme Court same-sex marriage ruling, June 26, 2015.

During his second inaugural address on January 21, 2013,[191] Obama
became the first U.S. President in office to call for full equality
for gay Americans: "Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers
and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law – for if we
are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another
must be equal as well." This was the first time that a president
mentioned gay rights or the word "gay" in an inaugural
address.[221][222]
In 2013, the
ObamaObama Administration filed briefs that urged the Supreme
Court to rule in favor of same-sex couples in the cases of
Hollingsworth v. PerryHollingsworth v. Perry (regarding same-sex marriage)[223] and United
States v. Windsor (regarding the Defense of Marriage Act).[224] Then,
following the Supreme Court's 2015 decision in Obergefell v. Hodges
(ruling same-sex marriage to be a fundamental right),
ObamaObama asserted
that, "This decision affirms what millions of Americans already
believe in their hearts: When all Americans are treated as equal we
are all more free."[225]
On July 30, 2015 the
White HouseWhite House Office of National AIDS Policy
revised its strategy for addressing the ailment, which included
widespread testing and linkage to healthcare, which was celebrated by
the Human Rights Campaign.[226]
White HouseWhite House advisory and oversight groups
On March 11, 2009,
ObamaObama created the
White HouseWhite House Council on Women and
Girls, which forms part of the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs,
having been established by Executive Order 13506 with a broad mandate
to advise him on issues relating to the welfare of American women and
girls.[227] The Council is currently chaired by Senior Advisor to the
President Valerie Jarrett.[228]
ObamaObama also established the White House
Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault through an official
United States government memorandum on January 22, 2014, with a broad
mandate to advise him on issues relating to sexual assault on college
and university campuses throughout the United States.[228][229][230]
The current co-chairs of the Task Force are Vice President Joe Biden
and Jarrett.[229] The Task Force has been a development out of the
White HouseWhite House Council on Women and Girls and Office of the Vice
President of the United States, and prior to that, the 1994 Violence
Against Women Act that was first drafted by Biden.[231]
Economic policy
Main article: Economic policy of the
Barack ObamaBarack Obama administration

Play media

ObamaObama presents his first weekly address as President of the United
States on January 24, 2009, discussing the American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act of 2009

On February 17, 2009,
ObamaObama signed the American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act of 2009, a $787 billion economic stimulus
package aimed at helping the economy recover from the deepening
worldwide recession.[232] The act includes increased federal spending
for health care, infrastructure, education, various tax breaks and
incentives, and direct assistance to individuals.[233]

Deficit and debt increases, 2001–16

In March, Obama's Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner, took further
steps to manage the financial crisis, including introducing the
Public–Private Investment Program for Legacy Assets, which contains
provisions for buying up to two trillion dollars in depreciated
real estate assets.[234]
ObamaObama intervened in the troubled automotive
industry[235] in March 2009, renewing loans for
General MotorsGeneral Motors and
ChryslerChrysler to continue operations while reorganizing. Over the following
months the
White HouseWhite House set terms for both firms' bankruptcies,
including the sale of
ChryslerChrysler to Italian automaker Fiat[236] and a
reorganization of GM giving the U.S. government a temporary 60% equity
stake in the company, with the Canadian government taking a 12%
stake.[237] In June 2009, dissatisfied with the pace of economic
stimulus,
ObamaObama called on his cabinet to accelerate the
investment.[238] He signed into law the Car Allowance Rebate System,
known colloquially as "Cash for Clunkers", that temporarily boosted
the economy.[239][240][241]
The Bush and
ObamaObama administrations authorized spending and loan
guarantees from the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department. These
guarantees totaled about $11.5 trillion, but only
$3 trillion was spent by the end of November 2009.[242]
ObamaObama and
the
Congressional Budget OfficeCongressional Budget Office predicted the 2010 budget deficit
would be $1.5 trillion or 10.6% of the nation's gross domestic
product (GDP) compared to the 2009 deficit of $1.4 trillion or
9.9% of GDP.[243][244] For 2011, the administration predicted the
deficit will shrink to $1.34 trillion, and the 10-year deficit
will increase to $8.53 trillion or 90% of GDP.[245] The most
recent increase in the U.S. debt ceiling to $17.2 trillion took
effect in February 2014.[246] On August 2, 2011, after a lengthy
congressional debate over whether to raise the nation's debt limit,
ObamaObama signed the bipartisan Budget Control Act of 2011. The
legislation enforces limits on discretionary spending until 2021,
establishes a procedure to increase the debt limit, creates a
Congressional Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction to propose
further deficit reduction with a stated goal of achieving at least
$1.5 trillion in budgetary savings over 10 years, and establishes
automatic procedures for reducing spending by as much as
$1.2 trillion if legislation originating with the new joint
select committee does not achieve such savings.[247] By passing the
legislation, Congress was able to prevent a U.S. government default on
its obligations.[248]

US employment statistics (unemployment rate and monthly changes in net
employment) during Obama's tenure as U.S. President[249][250]

As it did throughout 2008, the unemployment rate rose in 2009,
reaching a peak in October at 10.0% and averaging 10.0% in the fourth
quarter. Following a decrease to 9.7% in the first quarter of 2010,
the unemployment rate fell to 9.6% in the second quarter, where it
remained for the rest of the year.[251] Between February and December
2010, employment rose by 0.8%, which was less than the average of 1.9%
experienced during comparable periods in the past four employment
recoveries.[252] By November 2012, the unemployment rate fell to
7.7%,[253] decreasing to 6.7% in the last month of 2013.[254] During
2014, the unemployment rate continued to decline, falling to 6.3% in
the first quarter.[255] GDP growth returned in the third quarter of
2009, expanding at a rate of 1.6%, followed by a 5.0% increase in the
fourth quarter.[256] Growth continued in 2010, posting an increase of
3.7% in the first quarter, with lesser gains throughout the rest of
the year.[256] In July 2010, the Federal Reserve noted that economic
activity continued to increase, but its pace had slowed, and chairman
Ben BernankeBen Bernanke said the economic outlook was "unusually uncertain".[257]
Overall, the economy expanded at a rate of 2.9% in 2010.[258]
The
Congressional Budget OfficeCongressional Budget Office and a broad range of economists credit
Obama's stimulus plan for economic growth.[259][260] The CBO released
a report stating that the stimulus bill increased employment by
1–2.1 million,[260][261][262][263] while conceding that "It is
impossible to determine how many of the reported jobs would have
existed in the absence of the stimulus package."[259] Although an
April 2010 survey of members of the National Association for Business
Economics showed an increase in job creation (over a similar January
survey) for the first time in two years, 73% of 68 respondents
believed that the stimulus bill has had no impact on employment.[264]
The economy of the United States has grown faster than the other
original
NATONATO members by a wider margin under President
ObamaObama than it
has anytime since the end of World War II.[265] The
OECDOECD credits the
much faster growth in the United States to the stimulus in the United
States and the austerity measures in the European Union.[266]
Within a month of the 2010 midterm elections,
ObamaObama announced a
compromise deal with the Congressional Republican leadership that
included a temporary, two-year extension of the 2001 and 2003 income
tax rates, a one-year payroll tax reduction, continuation of
unemployment benefits, and a new rate and exemption amount for estate
taxes.[267] The compromise overcame opposition from some in both
parties, and the resulting $858 billion Tax Relief, Unemployment
Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010 passed with
bipartisan majorities in both houses of Congress before
ObamaObama signed
it on December 17, 2010.[268]
In December 2013,
ObamaObama declared that growing income inequality is a
"defining challenge of our time" and called on Congress to bolster the
safety net and raise wages. This came on the heels of the nationwide
strikes of fast-food workers and Pope Francis' criticism of inequality
and trickle-down economics.[269]
ObamaObama has urged Congress to ratify a 12-nation free trade pact called
the Trans-Pacific Partnership.[270]
Environmental policy
See also:
Climate changeClimate change policy of the United States

On September 30, 2009, the
Obama administrationObama administration proposed new
regulations on power plants, factories, and oil refineries in an
attempt to limit greenhouse gas emissions and to curb global
warming.[271][272]
On April 20, 2010, an explosion destroyed an offshore drilling rig at
the
Macondo ProspectMacondo Prospect in the Gulf of Mexico, causing a major sustained
oil leak.
ObamaObama visited the Gulf, announced a federal investigation,
and formed a bipartisan commission to recommend new safety standards,
after a review by Secretary of the Interior
Ken SalazarKen Salazar and concurrent
Congressional hearings. He then announced a six-month moratorium on
new deepwater drilling permits and leases, pending regulatory
review.[273] As multiple efforts by BP failed, some in the media and
public expressed confusion and criticism over various aspects of the
incident, and stated a desire for more involvement by
ObamaObama and the
federal government.[274]
In July 2013,
ObamaObama expressed reservations and stated he "would reject
the
Keystone XL pipelineKeystone XL pipeline if it increased carbon pollution" or
"greenhouse emissions".[275][276] Obama's advisers called for a halt
to petroleum exploration in the Arctic in January 2013.[277] On
February 24, 2015,
ObamaObama vetoed a bill that would authorize the
pipeline.[278] It was the third veto of Obama's presidency and his
first major veto.[279]
ObamaObama has emphasized the conservation of federal lands during his term
in office. He used his power under the
Antiquities ActAntiquities Act to create 25
new national monuments during his presidency and expand four others,
protecting a total of 553,000,000 acres (224,000,000 ha) of
federal lands and waters, more than any other U.S. president.[280]
Health care reform
Main article: Health care reform in the United States

ObamaObama called for Congress to pass legislation reforming health care in
the United States, a key campaign promise and a top legislative
goal.[281] He proposed an expansion of health insurance coverage to
cover the uninsured, to cap premium increases, and to allow people to
retain their coverage when they leave or change jobs. His proposal was
to spend $900 billion over 10 years and include a government
insurance plan, also known as the public option, to compete with the
corporate insurance sector as a main component to lowering costs and
improving quality of health care. It would also make it illegal for
insurers to drop sick people or deny them coverage for pre-existing
conditions, and require every American to carry health coverage. The
plan also includes medical spending cuts and taxes on insurance
companies that offer expensive plans.[282][283]

Maximum Out-of-Pocket Premium as Percentage of Family Income and
federal poverty level, under Patient Protection and Affordable Care
Act, starting in 2014 (Source: CRS)[284]

On July 14, 2009, House Democratic leaders introduced a 1,017-page
plan for overhauling the U.S. health care system, which
ObamaObama wanted
Congress to approve by the end of 2009.[281] After much public debate
during the Congressional summer recess of 2009,
ObamaObama delivered a
speech to a joint session of Congress on September 9 where he
addressed concerns over the proposals.[285] In March 2009, Obama
lifted a ban on using federal funds for stem cell research.[286]
On November 7, 2009, a health care bill featuring the public option
was passed in the House.[287][288] On December 24, 2009, the Senate
passed its own bill—without a public option—on a party-line vote
of 60–39.[289] On March 21, 2010, the Patient Protection and
Affordable Care Act (ACA) passed by the Senate in December was passed
in the House by a vote of 219 to 212.[290]
ObamaObama signed the bill into
law on March 23, 2010.[291]
The ACA includes health-related provisions, most of which took effect
in 2014, including expanding
MedicaidMedicaid eligibility for people making up
to 133% of the federal poverty level (FPL) starting in 2014,[292]
subsidizing insurance premiums for people making up to 400% of
the FPL ($88,000 for family of four in 2010) so their maximum
"out-of-pocket" payment for annual premiums will be from 2% to 9.5% of
income,[293][294] providing incentives for businesses to provide
health care benefits, prohibiting denial of coverage and denial of
claims based on pre-existing conditions, establishing health insurance
exchanges, prohibiting annual coverage caps, and support for medical
research. According to
White HouseWhite House and Congressional Budget Office
figures, the maximum share of income that enrollees would have to pay
would vary depending on their income relative to the federal poverty
level.[293][295]

Percentage of Individuals in the United States without Health
Insurance, 1963–2015 (Source: JAMA)[296]

The costs of these provisions are offset by taxes, fees, and
cost-saving measures, such as new Medicare taxes for those in
high-income brackets, taxes on indoor tanning, cuts to the Medicare
Advantage program in favor of traditional Medicare, and fees on
medical devices and pharmaceutical companies;[297] there is also a tax
penalty for those who do not obtain health insurance, unless they are
exempt due to low income or other reasons.[298] In March 2010, the
Congressional Budget OfficeCongressional Budget Office estimated that the net effect of both laws
will be a reduction in the federal deficit by $143 billion over
the first decade.[299]
The law faced several legal challenges, primarily based on the
argument that an individual mandate requiring Americans to buy health
insurance was unconstitutional. On June 28, 2012, the Supreme Court
ruled by a 5–4 vote in National Federation of Independent Business
v. Sebelius that the mandate was constitutional under the U.S.
Congress's taxing authority.[300] In Burwell v. Hobby Lobby the Court
ruled that "closely-held" for-profit corporations could be exempt on
religious grounds under the
Religious Freedom Restoration ActReligious Freedom Restoration Act from
regulations adopted under the ACA that would have required them to pay
for insurance that covered certain contraceptives. In June 2015, the
Court ruled 6–3 in
King v. BurwellKing v. Burwell that subsidies to help
individuals and families purchase health insurance were authorized for
those doing so on both the federal exchange and state exchanges, not
only those purchasing plans "established by the State", as the statute
reads.[301]
Energy policy
Main article: Energy policy of the
ObamaObama administration
Prior to June 2014,
ObamaObama offered substantial support for a
broadly-based "All of the above" approach to domestic energy policy,
which
ObamaObama has maintained since his first term and which he last
confirmed at his
State of the UnionState of the Union speech in January 2014 to a mixed
reception by both parties. In June 2014,
ObamaObama made indications that
his administration would consider a shift towards an energy policy
more closely tuned to the manufacturing industry and its impact on the
domestic economy.[302] Obama's approach of selectively combining
regulation and incentive to various issues in the domestic energy
policy such as coal mining and oil fracking has received mixed
commentary for not being as responsive to the needs of the domestic
manufacturing sector as needed, following claims that the domestic
manufacturing sector utilizes as much as a third of the nation's
available energy resources.[303][304]
Gun control
Main article: Social policy of the
Barack ObamaBarack Obama administration
§ Gun policy

ObamaObama visits an Aurora shooting victim at University of Colorado
Hospital, 2012

On January 16, 2013, one month after the Sandy Hook Elementary School
shooting,
ObamaObama signed 23 executive orders and outlined a series of
sweeping proposals regarding gun control.[305] He urged Congress to
reintroduce an expired ban on military-style assault weapons, such as
those used in several recent mass shootings, impose limits on
ammunition magazines to 10 rounds, introduce background checks on all
gun sales, pass a ban on possession and sale of armor-piercing
bullets, introduce harsher penalties for gun-traffickers, especially
unlicensed dealers who buy arms for criminals and approving the
appointment of the head of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco,
Firearms and Explosives for the first time since 2006.[306] On January
5, 2016,
ObamaObama announced new executive actions extending background
check requirements to more gun sellers.[307] In a
20162016 editorial in
the New York Times,
ObamaObama compared the struggle for what he termed
"common-sense gun reform" to women's suffrage and other civil rights
movements in American history.[308]
2010 midterm elections
Main articles:
United States House of RepresentativesUnited States House of Representatives elections, 2010
and
United States SenateUnited States Senate elections, 2010
ObamaObama called the November 2, 2010 election, where the Democratic Party
lost 63 seats in, and control of, the House of Representatives,[309]
"humbling" and a "shellacking".[310] He said that the results came
because not enough Americans had felt the effects of the economic
recovery.[311]
Cybersecurity and Internet policy
On November 10, 2014, President
ObamaObama recommended the Federal
Communications Commission reclassify broadband Internet service as a
telecommunications service in order to preserve net
neutrality.[312][313] On February 12, 2013, President
ObamaObama signed
Executive Order 13636, "Improving Critical Infrastructure
Cybersecurity."[314]
Foreign policy
Main article: Foreign policy of the
Barack ObamaBarack Obama administration

In February and March 2009, Vice President
Joe BidenJoe Biden and Secretary of
State Hillary Rodham Clinton made separate overseas trips to announce
a "new era" in U.S. foreign relations with Russia and Europe, using
the terms "break" and "reset" to signal major changes from the
policies of the preceding administration.[315]
ObamaObama attempted to
reach out to Arab leaders by granting his first interview to an Arab
satellite TV network, Al Arabiya.[316]
On March 19,
ObamaObama continued his outreach to the Muslim world,
releasing a New Year's video message to the people and government of
Iran.[317][318] In April,
ObamaObama gave a speech in Ankara, Turkey, which
was well received by many Arab governments.[319] On June 4, 2009,
ObamaObama delivered a speech at
Cairo UniversityCairo University in Egypt calling for "A
New Beginning" in relations between the Islamic world and the United
States and promoting Middle East peace.[320]

On June 26, 2009,
ObamaObama responded to the Iranian government's actions
towards protesters following Iran's 2009 presidential election by
saying: "The violence perpetrated against them is outrageous. We see
it and we condemn it."[321] While in Moscow on July 7, he responded
Vice President Biden's comment on a possible Israeli military strike
on Iran by saying: "We have said directly to the Israelis that it is
important to try and resolve this in an international setting in a way
that does not create major conflict in the Middle East."[322]
On September 24, 2009,
ObamaObama became the first sitting U.S. President
to preside over a meeting of the
United NationsUnited Nations Security Council.[323]
In March 2010,
ObamaObama took a public stance against plans by the
government of Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin NetanyahuBenjamin Netanyahu to continue
building Jewish housing projects in predominantly Arab neighborhoods
of East Jerusalem.[324][325] During the same month, an agreement was
reached with the administration of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev
to replace the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty with a new pact
reducing the number of long-range nuclear weapons in the arsenals of
both countries by about one-third.[326]
ObamaObama and Medvedev signed the
New STARTNew START treaty in April 2010, and the U.S. Senate ratified it in
December 2010.[327]

In December 2011,
ObamaObama instructed agencies to consider
LGBTLGBT rights
when issuing financial aid to foreign countries.[328] In August 2013,
he criticized Russia's law that discriminated against gays,[329] but
he stopped short of advocating a boycott of the upcoming 2014 Winter
Olympics in Sochi, Russia.[330]
In December 2014,
ObamaObama announced that he intended to normalize
relationships between Cuba and the United States.[331] The countries'
respective "interests sections" in one another's capitals were
upgraded to embassies on July 20, 2015.
In March 2015,
ObamaObama declared that he had authorized U.S. forces to
provide logistical and intelligence support to the Saudis in their
military intervention in Yemen, establishing a "Joint Planning Cell"
with Saudi Arabia.[332]
Before leaving office,
ObamaObama said German Chancellor
Angela MerkelAngela Merkel had
been his "closest international partner" throughout his tenure as
President.[333]
War in Iraq
Main articles:
Iraq WarIraq War and American-led intervention in Iraq
(2014–present)
On February 27, 2009,
ObamaObama announced that combat operations in Iraq
would end within 18 months. His remarks were made to a group of
Marines preparing for deployment to Afghanistan.
ObamaObama said, "Let me
say this as plainly as I can: by August 31, 2010, our combat mission
in
IraqIraq will end."[334] The
Obama administrationObama administration scheduled the
withdrawal of combat troops to be completed by August 2010, decreasing
troop's levels from 142,000 while leaving a transitional force of
about 50,000 in
IraqIraq until the end of 2011. On August 19, 2010, the
last U.S. combat brigade exited Iraq. Remaining troops transitioned
from combat operations to counter-terrorism and the training,
equipping, and advising of Iraqi security forces.[335][336] On August
31, 2010,
ObamaObama announced that the United States combat mission in
IraqIraq was over.[337] On October 21, 2011 President
ObamaObama announced that
all U.S. troops would leave
IraqIraq in time to be "home for the
holidays".[338]

In June 2014, following the capture of Mosul by ISIS,
ObamaObama sent 275
troops to provide support and security for U.S. personnel and the U.S.
Embassy in Baghdad. ISIS continued to gain ground and to commit
widespread massacres and ethnic cleansing.[339][340]
In August 2014, during the Sinjar massacre,
ObamaObama ordered a campaign
of U.S. airstrikes against ISIS.[341]
By the end of 2014, 3,100 American ground troops were committed to the
conflict[342] and 16,000 sorties were flown over the battlefield,
primarily by U.S. Air Force and Navy pilots.[343]
In the spring of 2015, with the addition of the "Panther Brigade" of
the
82nd Airborne Division82nd Airborne Division the number of U.S. ground troops in Iraq
surged to 4,400,[344] and by July American-led coalition air forces
counted 44,000 sorties over the battlefield.[345]
War in Afghanistan
Main article: War in
AfghanistanAfghanistan (2001–14)
Early in his presidency,
ObamaObama moved to bolster U.S. troop strength in
Afghanistan.[346] He announced an increase in U.S. troop levels to
17,000 military personnel in February 2009 to "stabilize a
deteriorating situation in Afghanistan", an area he said had not
received the "strategic attention, direction and resources it urgently
requires".[347] He replaced the military commander in Afghanistan,
General David D. McKiernan, with former
SpecialSpecial Forces commander Lt.
Gen.
Stanley A. McChrystalStanley A. McChrystal in May 2009, indicating that McChrystal's
SpecialSpecial Forces experience would facilitate the use of
counterinsurgency tactics in the war.[348] On December 1, 2009, Obama
announced the deployment of an additional 30,000 military personnel to
AfghanistanAfghanistan and proposed to begin troop withdrawals 18 months from
that date;[349] this took place in July 2011.
David PetraeusDavid Petraeus replaced
McChrystal in June 2010, after McChrystal's staff criticized White
House personnel in a magazine article.[350] In February 2013, Obama
said the U.S. military would reduce the troop level in Afghanistan
from 68,000 to 34,000 U.S. troops by February 2014.[351]
In October 2015, the
White HouseWhite House announced a plan to keep U.S. Forces
in
AfghanistanAfghanistan indefinitely in light of the deteriorating security
situation.[352]
Israel

In 2011, the United States vetoed a Security Council resolution
condemning Israeli settlements, with the United States being the only
nation to do so.[353]
ObamaObama supports the two-state solution to the
Arab–Israeli conflictArab–Israeli conflict based on the 1967 borders with land
swaps.[354]
In June 2011,
ObamaObama said that the bond between the United States and
Israel is "unbreakable".[355] During the initial years of the Obama
administration, the U.S. increased military cooperation with Israel,
including increased military aid, re-establishment of the U.S.-Israeli
Joint Political Military Group and the Defense Policy Advisory Group,
and an increase in visits among high-level military officials of both
countries.[356] The
Obama administrationObama administration asked Congress to allocate
money toward funding the
Iron DomeIron Dome program in response to the waves of
Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel.[357]
In 2013,
Jeffrey GoldbergJeffrey Goldberg reported that, in Obama's view, "with each
new settlement announcement, Netanyahu is moving his country down a
path toward near-total isolation."[358] In 2014,
ObamaObama likened the
Zionist movement to the
Civil Rights MovementCivil Rights Movement in the United States. He
said that both movements seek to bring justice and equal rights to
historically persecuted peoples. He explained, "To me, being
pro-Israel and pro-Jewish is part and parcel with the values that I've
been fighting for since I was politically conscious and started
getting involved in politics."[359]
ObamaObama expressed support for
Israel's right to defend itself during the 2014 Israel–Gaza
conflict.[360] In 2015,
ObamaObama was harshly criticized by Israel for
advocating and signing the Iran Nuclear Deal; Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu, who had advocated the U.S. congress to oppose it,
said the deal was "dangerous" and "bad".[361]
On December 23,
20162016 under the
ObamaObama Administration, the United States
abstained from
United Nations Security CouncilUnited Nations Security Council Resolution 2334,
effectively allowing it to pass.[362] Netanyahu strongly criticized
the Administration's actions,[363][364] and the Israeli government
withdrew its annual dues from the organization, which totaled $6
million, on January 6, 2017.[365] On January 5, 2017, the United
States House of Representatives voted 342–80 to condemn the UN
Resolution.[366][367]
Libya
Main article: 2011 military intervention in Libya

In February 2011, protests in
LibyaLibya began against long-time dictator
Muammar GaddafiMuammar Gaddafi as part of the Arab Spring. They soon turned violent.
In March, as forces loyal to Gaddafi advanced on rebels across Libya,
calls for a no-fly zone came from around the world, including Europe,
the Arab League, and a resolution[368] passed unanimously by the U.S.
Senate.[369] In response to the unanimous passage of United Nations
Security Council Resolution 1973 on March 17, Gaddafi—who had
previously vowed to "show no mercy" to the rebels of
Benghazi[370]—announced an immediate cessation of military
activities,[371] yet reports came in that his forces continued
shelling Misrata. The next day, on Obama's orders, the U.S. military
took part in air strikes to destroy the Libyan government's air
defense capabilities to protect civilians and enforce a
no-fly-zone,[372] including the use of Tomahawk missiles, B-2 Spirits,
and fighter jets.[373][374][375] Six days later, on March 25, by
unanimous vote of all of its 28 members,
NATONATO took over leadership of
the effort, dubbed Operation Unified Protector.[376] Some
Representatives[377] questioned whether
ObamaObama had the constitutional
authority to order military action in addition to questioning its
cost, structure and aftermath.[378][379]
Syrian Civil War
See also: Foreign involvement in the
Syrian Civil WarSyrian Civil War § United
States
On August 18, 2011, several months after the start of the Syrian Civil
War,
ObamaObama issued a written statement that said: "The time has come
for President Assad to step aside."[380][381] This stance was
reaffirmed in November 2015.[382] In 2012,
ObamaObama authorized multiple
programs run by the CIA and the Pentagon to train anti-Assad
rebels.[383] The Pentagon-run program was later found to have failed
and was formally abandoned in October 2015.[384][385]
In the wake of a chemical weapons attack in Syria, formally blamed by
the
Obama administrationObama administration on the Assad government,
ObamaObama chose not to
enforce the "red line" he had pledged[386] and, rather than authorise
the promised military action against Assad, went along with the
Russia-brokered deal that led to Assad giving up chemical weapons;
however attacks with chlorine gas continued.[387][388] In 2014, Obama
authorized an air campaign aimed primarily at ISIL, but repeatedly
promised that the U.S. would not deploy ground troops in
Syria.[389][390]
Death of Osama bin Laden
Main article: Death of Osama bin Laden

Play media

President Obama's address (9:28)
Also available: Audio only; Full text

Starting with information received from Central Intelligence Agency
operatives in July 2010, the CIA developed intelligence over the next
several months that determined what they believed to be the hideout of
Osama bin Laden. He was living in seclusion in a large compound in
Abbottabad, Pakistan, a suburban area 35 miles (56 km) from
Islamabad.[391] CIA head
Leon PanettaLeon Panetta reported this intelligence to
President
ObamaObama in March 2011.[391] Meeting with his national security
advisers over the course of the next six weeks,
ObamaObama rejected a plan
to bomb the compound, and authorized a "surgical raid" to be conducted
by United States Navy SEALs.[391] The operation took place on May 1,
2011, and resulted in the shooting death of bin Laden and the seizure
of papers, computer drives and disks from the compound.[392][393] DNA
testing was one of five methods used to positively identify bin
Laden's corpse,[394] which was buried at sea several hours later.[395]
Within minutes of the President's announcement from Washington, DC,
late in the evening on May 1, there were spontaneous celebrations
around the country as crowds gathered outside the White House, and at
New York City's Ground Zero and Times Square.[392][396] Reaction to
the announcement was positive across party lines, including from
former presidents
Bill ClintonBill Clinton and George W. Bush,[397] and from many
countries around the world.[398]

In November 2013, the
Obama administrationObama administration opened negotiations with
Iran to prevent it from acquiring nuclear weapons, which included an
interim agreement. Negotiations took two years with numerous delays,
with a deal being announced July 14, 2015. The deal, titled the "Joint
Comprehensive Plan of Action", saw the removal of sanctions in
exchange for measures that would prevent Iran from producing nuclear
weapons. While
ObamaObama hailed the agreement as being a step towards a
more hopeful world, the deal drew strong criticism from Republican and
conservative quarters, and from Israeli prime minister Benjamin
Netanyahu.[399][400][401] In order to advance the deal, the Obama
administration shielded
HezbollahHezbollah from the Drug Enforcement
Administration's project cassandra investigation regarding drug
smuggling and from the Central Intelligence Agency.[402][403]
Relations with Cuba
Main article: United States–Cuban Thaw

Since the spring of 2013, secret meetings were conducted between the
United States and Cuba in the neutral locations of Canada and Vatican
City.[404] The Vatican first became involved in 2013 when Pope Francis
advised the U.S. and Cuba to exchange prisoners as a gesture of
goodwill.[405] On December 10, 2013, Cuban President Raúl Castro, in
a significant public moment, greeted and shook hands with
ObamaObama at the
Nelson MandelaNelson Mandela memorial service in Johannesburg.[406]
In December 2014, after the secret meetings, it was announced that
Obama, with
Pope FrancisPope Francis as an intermediary, had negotiated a
restoration of relations with Cuba, after nearly sixty years of
détente.[407] Popularly dubbed the Cuban Thaw, The New Republic
deemed the
Cuban ThawCuban Thaw to be "Obama's finest foreign policy
achievement."[408] On July 1, 2015, President
Barack ObamaBarack Obama announced
that formal diplomatic relations between Cuba and the United States
would resume, and embassies would be opened in Washington and
Havana.[409] The countries' respective "interests sections" in one
another's capitals were upgraded to embassies on July 20 and August
13, 2015, respectively.[410]
ObamaObama visited Havana, Cuba for two days in March 2016, becoming the
first sitting U.S. President to arrive since
Calvin CoolidgeCalvin Coolidge in
1928.[411]
Africa
ObamaObama spoke in front of the
African UnionAfrican Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on
July 29, 2015, the first sitting U.S. president to do so. He gave a
speech encouraging the world to increase economic ties via investments
and trade with the continent, and lauded the progresses made in
education, infrastructure, and economy. He also criticized the lack of
democracy and leaders who refuse to step aside, discrimination against
minorities (
LGBTLGBT people, religious groups and ethnicities), and
corruption. He suggested an intensified democratization and free
trade, to significantly improve the quality of life for
Africans.[412][413] During his July 2015 trip,
ObamaObama also was the
first U.S. president ever to visit Kenya, which is the homeland of his
father.[414]
HiroshimaHiroshima speech
On May 27, 2016, 2½ months before the 71st anniversary of the U.S.
atomic bombing of
HiroshimaHiroshima that ended World War II,
ObamaObama became the
first sitting American president to visit Hiroshima, Japan.
Accompanied by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe,
ObamaObama paid tribute
to the victims of the bombing at the
HiroshimaHiroshima Peace Memorial
Museum.[415]
Russia
See also: Russia–United States relations § Obama's tenure
(2009–2017)

After Russia's invasion of Crimea in 2014, military intervention in
SyriaSyria in 2015, and the interference in the
20162016 U.S. presidential
election,[416] Obama's Russia policy was widely seen as a
failure.[417] George Robertson, a former UK defense secretary and NATO
secretary-general, said that
ObamaObama had "allowed Putin to jump back on
the world stage and test the resolve of the West", adding that the
legacy of this disaster would last.[418]
Cultural and political image
Main article: Public image of Barack Obama
See also: International reaction to the United States presidential
election, 2008 and International reactions to the United States
presidential election, 2012
Obama's family history, upbringing, and
Ivy LeagueIvy League education differ
markedly from those of African-American politicians who launched their
careers in the 1960s through participation in the civil rights
movement.[419] Expressing puzzlement over questions about whether he
is "black enough",
ObamaObama told an August 2007 meeting of the National
Association of Black Journalists that "we're still locked in this
notion that if you appeal to white folks then there must be something
wrong."[420]
ObamaObama acknowledged his youthful image in an October 2007
campaign speech, saying: "I wouldn't be here if, time and again, the
torch had not been passed to a new generation."[421]
ObamaObama is frequently referred to as an exceptional orator.[422] During
his pre-inauguration transition period and continuing into his
presidency,
ObamaObama delivered a series of weekly Internet video
addresses.[423] Former presidential campaign surrogate and Georgetown
professor, Michael Eric Dyson, is both critical and sympathetic of
President Obama's leadership in race relations, indicating that
Obama's speeches and action on racial disparity and justice have been
somewhat reactive and reluctant when, especially in the later part of
his second term, racial violence demanded immediate presidential
action and conversation.[424]

Presidential approval ratings

According to the Gallup Organization,
ObamaObama began his presidency with
a 68% approval rating[425] before gradually declining for the rest of
the year, and eventually bottoming out at 41% in August 2010,[426] a
trend similar to Ronald Reagan's and Bill Clinton's first years in
office.[427] He experienced a small poll bounce shortly after the
death of
Osama bin LadenOsama bin Laden on May 2, 2011. This bounce lasted until
around June 2011, when his approval numbers dropped back to where they
were previously.[428][429] His approval ratings rebounded around the
same time as his reelection in 2012, with polls showing an average job
approval of 52% shortly after his second inauguration.[430] Despite
approval ratings dropping to 39% in late-2013 due to the ACA roll-out,
they climbed to 50% in January 2015 according to Gallup.[431]
Polls showed strong support for
ObamaObama in other countries both before
and during his presidency.[432][433] In a February 2009 poll conducted
in Western Europe and the U.S. by
Harris InteractiveHarris Interactive for
France 24France 24 and
the International Herald Tribune,
ObamaObama was rated as the most
respected world leader, as well as the most powerful.[434] In a
similar poll conducted by Harris in May 2009,
ObamaObama was rated as the
most popular world leader, as well as the one figure most people would
pin their hopes on for pulling the world out of the economic
downturn.[435][436]

G8 leaders watching the 2012 UEFA Champions League Final

ObamaObama won Best Spoken Word Album Grammy Awards for abridged audiobook
versions of
Dreams from My FatherDreams from My Father in February 2006 and for The
Audacity of Hope in February 2008.[437] His concession speech after
the New Hampshire primary was set to music by independent artists as
the music video "Yes We Can", which was viewed 10 million times
on
YouTubeYouTube in its first month[438] and received a Daytime Emmy
Award.[439] In December 2008 and in 2012, Time magazine named
ObamaObama as
its Person of the Year.[440] The 2008 awarding was for his historic
candidacy and election, which Time described as "the steady march of
seemingly impossible accomplishments".[441] On May 25, 2011, Obama
became the first
President of the United StatesPresident of the United States to address both houses
of the UK Parliament in Westminster Hall, London. This was only the
fifth occurrence since the start of the 20th century of a head of
state being extended this invitation, following
Charles de GaulleCharles de Gaulle in
1960,
Nelson MandelaNelson Mandela in 1996, Queen
Elizabeth IIElizabeth II in 2002 and Pope
Benedict XVI in 2010.[442][443]
On October 9, 2009, the
Norwegian Nobel CommitteeNorwegian Nobel Committee announced that Obama
had won the 2009
Nobel Peace PrizeNobel Peace Prize "for his extraordinary efforts to
strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between
peoples".[444]
ObamaObama accepted this award in Oslo, Norway on December
10, 2009, with "deep gratitude and great humility."[445] The award
drew a mixture of praise and criticism from world leaders and media
figures.[446][447][448][449][450][451][452][excessive citations]
Obama's peace prize was called a "stunning surprise" by The New York
Times.[453]
ObamaObama is the fourth U.S. president to be awarded the Nobel
Peace Prize and the third to become a Nobel laureate while in
office.[454] Obama's Nobel Prize has been viewed skeptically in
subsequent years, especially after the director of the Nobel
Institute, Geir Lundestad, said Obama's Peace Prize did not have the
desired effect.[455]
Post-presidency (2017–present)

Barack Obama's presidency ended at noon on January 20, 2017,
immediately following the inauguration of his Republican successor,
Donald Trump. After the inauguration,
ObamaObama lifted off on Executive
One, circled the White House, and flew to Joint Base Andrews.[456] The
family currently rents a house in Kalorama, Washington, D.C.[457]
A 2018 survey of historians by the American Political Science
Association ranked
ObamaObama the 8th-greatest American President.[3] Obama
gained 10 spots from the same survey in 2015 from the Brookings
Institute that ranked
ObamaObama the 18th-greatest American President.[458]
During the 2017
Democratic National CommitteeDemocratic National Committee chairmanship election,
the
Obama administrationObama administration pushed
Tom PerezTom Perez to run against Keith
Ellison.[459] President
Barack ObamaBarack Obama personally called DNC members to
vote for Perez.[460]
On March 2, 2017, the
John F. KennedyJohn F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum
awarded the annual
Profile in Courage Award to
ObamaObama "for his enduring
commitment to democratic ideals and elevating the standard of
political courage."[461] On April 24, 2017, in his first public
appearance out of office,
ObamaObama appeared at a seminar at the
University of
ChicagoChicago aimed at the engagement with a new generation as
well as an appeal for their participation in politics.[462] On May 4,
2017, three days ahead of the French presidential election, Obama
publicly endorsed Emmanuel Macron: "He appeals to people's hopes and
not their fears, and I enjoyed speaking to Emmanuel recently to hear
about his independent movement and his vision for the future of
France."[463] Macron went on to win the election. On May 9, 2017,
ObamaObama delivered a speech urging civic engagement during a food
innovation summit in Milan, Italy, saying in part, "if you don't vote
and you don't pay attention, you'll get policies that don't reflect
your interest."[464]
While in
BerlinBerlin on May 25, 2017,
ObamaObama made a joint public appearance
with Chancellor
Angela MerkelAngela Merkel where he stressed inclusion and for
leaders to question themselves,
ObamaObama having been formally invited to
BerlinBerlin while still in office as part of an effort to boost Merkel's
re-election campaign.[465]
ObamaObama traveled to
Kensington PalaceKensington Palace in
England and met with
Prince HarryPrince Harry on May 27, 2017;
ObamaObama tweeted
afterward that the two discussed their foundations and offering
condolences in the wake of the Manchester Arena bombing that occurred
five days prior.[466]
On June 1, 2017, after President Trump announced his withdrawal of the
United States from the Paris Agreement,
ObamaObama released a statement
disagreeing with the choice: "But even in the absence of American
leadership; even as this administration joins a small handful of
nations that reject the future; I'm confident that our states, cities,
and businesses will step up and do even more to lead the way, and help
protect for future generations the one planet we've got."[467] On July
1, when
ObamaObama was visiting Indonesia, the first Asian country that he
visited after his presidency as well as the country of his childhood,
he urged the world to stand against "aggressive nationalism" while
making a speech in Jakarta, notably standing for Basuki Tjahaja
Purnama, a jailed former
JakartaJakarta Governor and an ally of the current
Indonesian president Joko Widodo.[468] During an appearance at the
Seoul conference on July 3,
ObamaObama said the
Paris AgreementParis Agreement "will still
be a critical factor in helping our children solve the enormous
challenge in civilization."[469]
After the Congressional baseball shooting,
ObamaObama telephoned Senator
Jeff FlakeJeff Flake to express condolences for the victims and to request Flake
inform House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, injured during the shooting,
of his sentiments for him.[470]

ObamaObama playing golf with the President of Argentina Mauricio Macri,
October 2017

On June 22, 2017, after Senate Republicans revealed the Better Care
Reconciliation Act of 2017, their discussion draft of a health care
bill to replace the Affordable Care Act,
ObamaObama released a Facebook
post calling the bill "a massive transfer of wealth from middle-class
and poor families to the richest people in America."[471] On September
19, while delivering the keynote address at Goalkeepers, Obama
admitted his frustration with Republicans backing "a bill that will
raise costs, reduce coverage, and roll back protections for older
Americans and people with pre-existing conditions".[472]
On September 5, 2017, after Attorney General
Jeff SessionsJeff Sessions announced
the termination of the
Deferred Action for Childhood ArrivalsDeferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)
program,
ObamaObama released a Facebook post rebuking the decision.[473]
On September 7, 2017,
ObamaObama partnered with former presidents Jimmy
Carter, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and
George W. BushGeorge W. Bush to work
with
One America AppealOne America Appeal to help the victims of
Hurricane HarveyHurricane Harvey and
Hurricane IrmaHurricane Irma in the Gulf Coast and
TexasTexas communities.[474]
On October 31, 2017,
ObamaObama hosted the inaugural summit of the Obama
Foundation in Chicago.
ObamaObama intends for the foundation to be the
central focus of his post-presidency and part of his ambitions for his
subsequent activities following his presidency to be more
consequential than his time in office.[475]
ObamaObama went on an international trip from November 28 to December 2,
2017 and visited China, India and France. In China, he delivered
remarks at the Global Alliance of SMEs Summit in Shanghai and met with
Chinese President
Xi JinpingXi Jinping in Beijing.[476][477] He then went to
India where he spoke at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit, before
meeting with Indian Prime Minister
Narendra ModiNarendra Modi over lunch. In
addition, he held a town hall for young leaders, organized by the
ObamaObama Foundation.[478][479] He also met with
Dalai LamaDalai Lama while in New
Delhi.[480] He ended his five-day trip in France where he met with
French President Emmanuel Macron, former President Francois Hollande
and Paris Mayor
Anne HidalgoAnne Hidalgo and then spoke at an invitation-only
event, touching on climate issues.[481]
Legacy

Job growth during the presidency of
ObamaObama compared to predecessors, as
measured as cumulative percentage change from month after inauguration
to end of his term

Obama's most significant legacy is generally considered to be the
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, provisions of which went
into effect from 2010 to 2020.[482] Together with the Health Care and
Education Reconciliation Act amendment, it represents the U.S.
healthcare system's most significant regulatory overhaul and expansion
of coverage since the passage of Medicare and
MedicaidMedicaid in
1965.[483][484][485][486]
Many commentators credit
ObamaObama with averting a threatened depression
and pulling the economy back from the Great Recession.[482] According
to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the
ObamaObama administration
created 11.3 million jobs from the month after his first
inauguration to the end of his term.[487]
In 2009, President
ObamaObama signed into law the National Defense
Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010, which contained in it the
Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, the
first addition to existing federal hate crime law in the United States
since Democratic President
Bill ClintonBill Clinton signed into law the Church
Arson Prevention Act of 1996. The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr.
Hate Crimes Prevention Act expanded existing federal hate crime laws
in the United States to apply to crimes motivated by a victim's actual
or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or
disability, and dropped the prerequisite that the victim be engaging
in a federally protected activity.
In 2010, President
ObamaObama signed into effect the Dodd–Frank Wall
Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Passed as a response to the
financial crisis of 2007–08, it brought the most significant changes
to financial regulation in the United States since the regulatory
reform that followed the
Great DepressionGreat Depression under Democratic President
Franklin D. Roosevelt.[488]
As president,
ObamaObama advanced
LGBTLGBT rights.[489] In 2010,
ObamaObama signed
the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act, which brought an end to "don't
ask, don't tell" policy in the U.S. armed forces that banned open
service from LGB people; the law went into effect the following
year.[490] In 2016, the
Obama administrationObama administration brought an end to the ban
on transgender people serving openly in the US armed forces.[491][216]
A Gallup poll, taken in the final days of Obama's term, showed that
68% of Americans believed that the U.S. had made progress in the
situation for gays and lesbians during Obama's eight years in
office.[492]
President
ObamaObama continued the drone strikes that President George W.
Bush started during his presidency in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan,
Somalia, and Yemen.
ObamaObama also ordered drone strikes in
LibyaLibya in 2011,
the
PhilippinesPhilippines in 2012, and
SyriaSyria in 2014.[493] In 2016, the last
year of his presidency, the US dropped 26,171 bombs on seven different
countries.[494][495]
ObamaObama left about 9,800 US troops in Afghanistan,
5,262 US troops in Iraq, 503 US troops in Syria, 133 US troops in
Pakistan, 106 US troops in Somalia, 7 US troops in Yemen, and 2 US
troops in
LibyaLibya at the end of his presidency.[496][497]
According to
Pew Research CenterPew Research Center and United States Bureau of Justice
Statistics, from December 31, 2009 to December 31, 2015, that inmates
sentenced in US federal custody declined by 5% under US President
Obama. This is the largest decline in sentenced inmates in US federal
custody since Democrat US President Jimmy Carter. By contrast, the
federal prison population increased significantly under US presidents
Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W.
Bush.[498]
ObamaObama left office in January 2017 with a 60% approval
rating.[499][500] A 2017
C-SPANC-SPAN Presidential Historians Survey ranked
ObamaObama as the 12th-best US president.[501][502]
Presidential library
Main article:
Barack ObamaBarack Obama Presidential Center
The
ObamaObama Presidential Center is the planned presidential library of
Barack Obama. The center will be hosted by the University of Chicago,
and will be located in Jackson Park on the South Side of Chicago,
Illinois.[503]
Books written

Dreams from My Father, 1995
The Audacity of Hope, 2006
Of Thee I Sing, 2010

Audiobooks

2006: The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream
(read by the author), Random House Audio, ISBN 978-0-7393-6641-7

Obama, Barack (2004) [1995]. Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race
and Inheritance. pp. 93–94. Retrieved June 3, 2016.
Maraniss, David (2012). Barack Obama: The Story. pages with "choom
gang". Retrieved June 3, 2016.
for analysis of the political impact of the quote and Obama's more
recent admission that he smoked marijuana as a teenager ("When I was a
kid, I inhaled"), see:
Seelye, Katharine Q. (October 24, 2006). "
ObamaObama offers more variations
from the norm". The New York Times. p. A21. Retrieved October 29,
2006.
Romano, Lois (January 3, 2007). "Effect of Obama's candor remains to
be seen". The Washington Post. p. A1. Retrieved January 14,
2007.

Issenberg, Sasha (August 6, 2008). "
ObamaObama shows hints of his year in
global finance; Tied markets to social aid". Boston Globe. p. 1A.
Archived from the original on August 9, 2008. Retrieved August 6,
2008.

^ Scott, Janny (July 30, 2007). "Obama's account of New York often
differs from what others say". The New York Times. p. B1.
Retrieved July 31, 2007.

"The Truth about Barack's Faith" (PDF).
ObamaObama for America. Archived
from the original (PDF) on January 5, 2011. Retrieved July 1,
2012.
Miller, Lisa (July 18, 2008). "Finding his faith". Newsweek. Archived
from the original on February 6, 2010. Retrieved February 4, 2010. He
is now a Christian, having been baptized in the early 1990s at Trinity
United Church of Christ in Chicago.
Barakat, Matthew (November 17, 2008). "Obama's church choice likely to
be scrutinized; D.C. churches have started extending invitations to
ObamaObama and his family". MSNBC. Associated Press. Archived from the
original on January 24, 2009. Retrieved January 20, 2009. The United
Church of Christ, the denomination from which
ObamaObama resigned when he
left Wright's church, issued a written invitation to join a UCC
denomination in Washington and resume his connections to the
church.
"Barack Obama, long time UCC member, inaugurated forty-fourth U.S.
President". United Church of Christ. January 20, 2009. Archived from
the original on January 25, 2009. Retrieved January 21, 2009. Barack
Obama, who spent more than 20 years as a UCC member, is the
forty-fourth President of the United States.
Sullivan, Amy (June 29, 2009). "The Obama's find a church
home – away from home". Time. Retrieved February 5, 2010.
instead of joining a congregation in Washington, D.C., he will follow
in George W. Bush's footsteps and make his primary place of worship
Evergreen Chapel, the nondenominational church at Camp David.
Kornblut, Anne E. (February 4, 2010). "Obama's spirituality is largely
private, but it's influential, advisers say". The Washington Post.
p. A6. Retrieved February 5, 2010.
ObamaObama prays privately ...
And when he takes his family to
Camp DavidCamp David on the weekends, a Navy
chaplain ministers to them, with the daughters attending a form of
Sunday school there.

Obama, Barack (June 28, 2006). "'Call to Renewal' Keynote Address".
Barack Obama: U.S. Senator for Illinois. Archived from the original on
January 4, 2009. Retrieved June 16, 2008.

^ Pulliam, Sarah; Olsen, Ted (January 23, 2008). "Q&A: Barack
Obama". Christianity Today. Retrieved January 4, 2013.
^ Charles Babington; Darlene Superville (September 28, 2010). "Obama
'Christian By Choice': President Responds To Questioner". HuffPost.
Associated Press. Archived from the original on May 11, 2011.
^ "President Obama: 'I am a Christian By Choice...The Precepts of
Jesus Spoke to Me'". ABC News. September 29, 2010. Retrieved December
27, 2016.
^ Garrett, Major; Obama, Barack (March 14, 2008). "
ObamaObama talks to
Major Garrett on 'Hannity & Colmes'". RealClearPolitics. Retrieved
November 10, 2012. Major Garrett,
Fox NewsFox News correspondent: So the first
question, how long have you been a member in good standing of that
church? Sen.
Barack ObamaBarack Obama (D-IL), presidential candidate: You know,
I've been a member since 1991 or '92. And – but I have known
Trinity even before then when I was a community organizer on the South
Side, helping steel workers find jobs ... Garrett: As a member in
good standing, were you a regular attendee of Sunday services? Obama:
You know, I won't say that I was a perfect attendee. I was regular in
spurts, because there was times when, for example, our child had just
been born, our first child. And so we didn't go as regularly
then.

"
ObamaObama strongly denounces former pastor". MSNBC. Associated Press.
April 29, 2008. Retrieved November 10, 2012. I have been a member of
Trinity United Church of Christ since 1992, and have known Reverend
Wright for 20 years,"
ObamaObama said. "The person I saw yesterday was not
the person that I met 20 years ago.
Miller, Lisa (July 11, 2008). "Finding his faith". Newsweek. Archived
from the original on July 20, 2013. Retrieved November 10, 2012. He is
now a Christian, having been baptized in the early 1990s at Trinity
United Church of Christ in Chicago.
Remnick, David (2010). The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama.
New York: Alfred A. Knopf. p. 177. ISBN 978-1-4000-4360-6.
In late October 1987, his third year as an organizer,
ObamaObama went with
Kellman to a conference on the black church and social justice at the
Harvard Divinity School.
Maraniss (2012), p. 557: It would take time for
ObamaObama to join and
become fully engaged in Wright's church, a place where he would be
baptized and married; that would not happen until later, during his
second time around in Chicago, but the process started then, in
October 1987 ... Jerry Kellman: "He wasn't a member of the church
during those first three years, but he was drawn to Jeremiah."
Peter, Baker (2017). Obama: The Call of History. New York: The New
York Times/Callaway. ISBN 9780935112900.
OCLC 1002264033.

^ Obama, Barack (October 2, 2002). "Remarks of
IllinoisIllinois State Sen.
Barack ObamaBarack Obama against going to war with Iraq". Barack Obama. Archived
from the original on January 30, 2008. Retrieved February 3,
2008.

McCormick, John (October 3, 2007). "
ObamaObama marks '02 war speech;
Contender highlights his early opposition in effort to distinguish him
from his rivals".
ChicagoChicago Tribune. p. 7. Retrieved October 28,
2008. The top strategist for Sen.
Barack ObamaBarack Obama has just 14 seconds of
video of what is one of the most pivotal moments of the presidential
candidate's political career. The video, obtained from a
ChicagoChicago TV
station, is of Obama's 2002 speech in opposition to the impending Iraq
invasion. (subscription required)
Pallasch, Abdon M. (October 3, 2007). "
ObamaObama touts anti-war cred;
Kicks off tour 5 years after speech critical of going to Iraq".
ChicagoChicago Sun-Times. p. 26. Retrieved October 28,
2008. (subscription required)

^ Bernstein, David (June 2007). "The Speech".
ChicagoChicago Magazine.
Retrieved April 13, 2008.
^ "Star Power. Showtime: Some are on the rise; others have long been
fixtures in the firmament. A galaxy of bright Democratic lights".
Newsweek. August 2, 2004. pp. 48–51. Archived from the original
on December 18, 2008. Retrieved November 15, 2008.

^ "The
ObamaObama promise of hope and change". The Independent. London.
November 1, 2008. Archived from the original on May 15, 2011.
^ Tumulty, Karen (May 8, 2008). "The Five Mistakes Clinton Made".
Time. Archived from the original on December 11, 2008. Retrieved
November 11, 2008.

Peter Baker; Jim Rutenberg (June 8, 2008). "The Long Road to a Clinton
Exit". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 9,
2008. Retrieved November 29, 2008.

^ Nagourney, Adam; Zeleny, Jeff (June 5, 2008). "Clinton to End Bid
and Endorse Obama". The New York Times. Retrieved November 20,
2010.
^ Nagourney, Adam; Zeleny, Jeff (August 23, 2008). "
ObamaObama Chooses
Biden as Running Mate". The New York Times. Archived from the original
on April 1, 2009. Retrieved September 20, 2008.
^ "Sources: High court selection process down to finalists". CNN. May
13, 2009. Archived from the original on May 11, 2011.
^ Baldwin, Tom (August 27, 2008). "Hillary Clinton: 'Barack is my
candidate'". The Times. London. Retrieved August 27,
2008. (subscription required)

^ "General Election: McCain vs. Obama". Real Clear Politics. Archived
from the original on February 17, 2009. Retrieved February 20,
2009.
^ "
ObamaObama wins historic US election". BBC News. November 5, 2008.
Archived from the original on December 18, 2008. Retrieved November 5,
2008.

Nagourney, Adam (November 4, 2008). "
ObamaObama Elected President as Racial
Barrier Falls". The New York Times. Archived from the original on
December 9, 2008. Retrieved November 5, 2008.
"Obama: 'This is your victory'". CNN. November 5, 2008. Archived from
the original on November 4, 2008. Retrieved November 5, 2008.

Meckler, Laura (January 24, 2009). "
ObamaObama lifts 'gag rule' on
family-planning groups". The Wall Street Journal. p. A3.
Retrieved September 21, 2012.
Stein, Rob; Shear, Michael (January 24, 2009). "Funding restored to
groups that perform abortions, other care". The Washington Post.
p. A3. Retrieved September 21, 2012. Lifting the Mexico City
Policy would not permit U.S. tax dollars to be used for abortions, but
it would allow funding to resume to groups that provide other
services, including counseling about abortions.

Barack ObamaBarack Obama at Encyclopædia Britannica
ObamaObama B. United States Health Care Reform: Progress to Date and Next
Steps. JAMA. Published online July 11, 2016.
doi:10.1001/jama.2016.9797.
Teague Beckwith, Ryan (March 23, 2017). "Read Barack Obama's Statement
on the Anniversary of Obamacare". Time magazine. Archived from the
original on March 31, 2017. Retrieved March 31, 2017. See also:
Taylor, Jessica (March 23, 2017). "Obama: 'America Is Stronger Because
Of The Affordable Care Act'". National Public Radio. Archived from the
original on March 31, 2017. Retrieved March 31, 2017.
ObamaObama B. "The President's Role in Advancing Criminal Justice Reform".
Harvard Law Review. Published January 5, 2017.
Barack ObamaBarack Obama at Curlie (based on DMOZ)

Bibliography
Obama: From Promise to Power
Barack Obama: Der schwarze Kennedy
Redemption Song
The Case Against Barack Obama
The
ObamaObama Nation
Culture of Corruption
Catastrophe
Barack and Michelle
The Speech
The
ObamaObama Story
Game Change
Game ChangeGame Change 2012
Rising Star

Federal Bureau of Investigation
Department of Justice
Select Committee on Intelligence
Department of the Treasury
FinCEN
Department of State
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Customs Service
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement